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Sediment transport monitoring key to managing the Limpopo

Summary

Monitoring sediment transport is crucial for the sustainable management of the Limpopo River Basin, as it helps track changes in water quality, river morphology, and ecosystem health.

Monitoring sediment transport is crucial for the sustainable management of the Limpopo River Basin, as it helps track changes in water quality, river morphology, and ecosystem health.

 

To capacitate LIMCOM Member States to better track these changes, the LIMCOM Secretariat on 04 February held a training session on the Sediment Monitoring Framework.

 

A draft “working paper” has been produced, and stakeholders are now collectively reviewing it to map the next steps, including conducting field activities scheduled to commence in February/March, as well as equipment procurement.

 

Sediment transport modelling and monitoring are critically important for the sustainable management of the Limpopo River Basin. For example, dam construction alters sediment transfer processes across the entire basin, with widespread impacts on physical, chemical and biological processes, as dams change fluvial sediment transport processes by reducing sediment loads downstream and creating sinks of fluvial sediments in areas upstream of dams.

 

These processes, coupled with unsustainable land management practices in areas upstream of dams, are among the main reasons why several dams in the Limpopo River Basin have experienced declining productivity/capacity due to sedimentation over the past several decades.

 

Furthermore, reduced sediment loads downstream of dams create river flows that are sediment “hungry” and produce increased erosive capacity in downstream areas, leading to river channel scouring and increased riverbank erosion, potentially reducing the extent of available agricultural lands along floodplains, and causing damage to downstream infrastructure.

 

To scientifically validate these threats, and to identify cost-effective ways to implement countermeasures, LIMCOM is developing a Sediment Monitoring Framework.

 

Development of the framework is supported under the project “Integrated Transboundary River Basin Management for the Sustainable Development of the Limpopo River Basin,” which aims to uplift the living standards of the basin’s population and conserve the basin’s resources and ecosystem services.

 

LIMCOM is implementing the project in partnership with the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA), with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), through funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).